Room-Inns?

[LauraLiz]

I read an article in the paper the other day about Room-Inns. Our town is building a new hospital and this parent group lobbied for the hospital to have a couple Room-Inns. Basically it is a transition room for parents taking home a 'sick' baby. It allows them to spend the whole night with their baby, providing all the care, but it is still in the hospital and the baby still has an assigned nurse if the parents need any help or have questions. I haven't heard of this before, but the parents that started the group that lobbied for it in our new hospital had had a very premature baby (they had to go to another city and hospital to receive care for the baby) and the hospital they were at had a Room-Inn for them to transition when he was ready to go home. Since a new hospital is being built here in our town they wanted all parents and babied to get the benefits of Room-Inns.

Do any of your hospital's have Room-Inns?

[Jolie, BSN]

This is a common practice prior to the discharge of a baby with special needs.

In some NICUs, there is an actual room within the unit that houses the family for an overnight prior to DC. In a large unit, it is necessary to reserve this room a few days in advance to make sure it is available when needed.

In other facilities, a regular patient room on the mother-baby unit is used, with NICU nursing staff available to check on the family at regular intervals.

Either way, we have found it best to plan this a few nights before anticipated DC so that mom and dad have time to address any questions or problems that might arise while rooming-in, and also to let mom and dad get a full night's sleep at home immediately prior to DC.

[Southern Fried RN]

I'm a big fan of the "room-in" for NICU. My son was born with VACTERL sydrome and was in the NICU for 2 weeks. The night before he was supposed to be discharged the NICU offered to let us use the room-in. It had a bed, TV, small fridge, phone, call bell and full bathroom. A nurse was available to us but it was made clear that we were responsible for my son's care--feeding, diapering, and staying with him at all times, just like it would be at home. He only had a colostomy so there weren't as many issues to "practice" with like a baby with a g-tube or trach. This NICU was a level 3 and had about 50 beds, with 2 room-ins.

[dancingdoula]

My facility recently opened a whole unit dedicated for this purpose. We have 14 rooms that are currently being utilized and another 6 or so that will be available soon. Unfortunately, not enough parents use this resource:(

[j_audrey]

Our children's hospital has room-ins... it's wonderful, especially if your are taking home a high risk or special needs child. It takes some of the pressure of Mom and Dad, and lets them get used to the thought of going home and being the sole caretakers of their child.

They also have separate rooms for the parents in the ICU area that are almost hotel like, for parents of extremely sick children. It allowed one of my good friends to be able to stay on the floor her son was on for the week he was there before he passed away, and allowed her to have a space where she could nurse her infant and spend time with her while not leaving the hospital where her son was at.

I think those options should be available in more facilities.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

We do this at our hospital (level IV NICU). A few days before d/c, parents spend a night or two in a room with their baby and with the help of a NICU nurse. They either stay in a peds room or on mother/baby.